‘We’ll never know if he could have been saved.’ The gaps in Trump’s rural health fund

Debra Pierce holds up a picture of Stanley Sears, her brother, while standing in the yard of the mobile home he was renovating before his death in 2024. Pierce believes North Carolina

Republicans promise that $50 billion in new health funding will help rural America. But it’s not expected to aid the years-long effort in North Carolina’s Martin County to reopen its only hospital.

(Image credit: Sarah Jane Tribble)